Rubio Declares ‘Old World Is Gone’ Following Iran Strikes
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a gaggle of reporters on Saturday, following U.S. and Israel strikes on Iran, that “the old world” he grew up in “is gone,” while urging American allies to realize that and help Washington forge a new path forward for the West.
“The world is changing very fast right in front of us,” Rubio said. “The old world is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era of geopolitics, and it’s gonna require all of us to sort of reexamine what that looks like and what our role is going to be.”
He added, “We’ve had many of these conversations in private with many of our allies. We need to continue to have those conversations.”
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday that Rubio notified senior congressional leaders ahead of the joint U.S. Israeli military operation against Iran.
Leavitt’s statement, posted to X, came as critics questioned whether President Donald Trump authorized the strikes without the required approval from Congress.
“President Trump monitored the situation overnight at Mar a Lago alongside members of his national security team. The President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu by phone,” Leavitt wrote.
“Prior to the attacks, Secretary Rubio called all members of the gang of eight to provide congressional notification, and he was able to reach and brief seven of the eight members,” she added.
“The President and his national security team will continue to closely monitor the situation throughout the day.”
Leavitt did not indicate whether Trump would return to Washington or remain at his Florida residence.
The so called “Gang of Eight” includes the Senate and House majority and minority leaders as well as the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that the group had been briefed.
“The Gang of Eight was briefed in detail earlier this week about potential military action against Iran,” Johnson said, according to The Independent.
Under the 1947 National Security Act, Congress must be kept “fully informed” of significant intelligence activities.
However, according to the Harvard Kennedy School, presidents from both parties have interpreted that language to mean that notifying the “Gang of Eight” satisfies the requirement rather than briefing the full intelligence committees.
Leavitt’s comments followed criticism from Rep. Thomas Massie, R Ky., who wrote on X, “Acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D Calif., had planned to force a vote next week that would restrict Trump’s ability to launch strikes on Iran without formal congressional authorization.
As the debate over war powers intensified, Rubio announced Friday that Iran had been designated a state sponsor of wrongful detention.
“When the Iranian regime seized power 47 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini consolidated his control of power by endorsing the hostage taking of US embassy staff,” Rubio said in a statement.
“For decades, Iran has continued to cruelly detain innocent Americans, as well as citizens of other nations, to use as political leverage against other states. This abhorrent practice must end.”
Rubio said Trump signed an executive order last fall to protect U.S. nationals from wrongful detention abroad and that Congress later enacted the Countering Wrongful Detention Act of 2025.
“The Iranian regime must stop taking hostages and release all Americans unjustly detained in Iran, steps that could end this designation and associated actions,” Rubio said.
Bondi Moved To Military Base Amid Threats From Cartels, Epstein Critics
Attorney General Pam Bondi and several other top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have relocated to housing on a military base in the face of persistent threats.
Bondi “relocated” within the last month from an apartment to one of several military bases in Washington, where other Trump officials also reside, according to the New York Times, which cited several people with knowledge of the situation.
According to reports, Bondi’s move was prompted by threats from cartels and criticism regarding her handling of documents about convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Other Trump officials who moved to military facilities amid security threats include Kristi Noem, who recently lost her gig as head of the Department of Homeland Security; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Although some reports claimed the housing was free, a representative for Noem previously told the Times that she was paying “fair-market rent” for her military base housing.
Threats against the attorney general have increased, according to Bondi’s staff, particularly in the last few months, due to the backlash against the Epstein files and the arrest of disputed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is currently being charged with narco-terrorism in the United States.
After weeks of complaints about redactions and other issues in the files made public, Bondi said the Department of Justice had made “all” of Epstein’s files public.
The Justice Department on Thursday released three previously undisclosed interview summaries from the Epstein files containing uncorroborated allegations involving President Trump.
The documents include statements from a woman who alleged she was assaulted by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and by Trump when she was a minor, the Washington Times reported.
The Justice Department said the interview summaries had originally been withheld from the January release of Epstein-related documents because they were mistakenly labeled as duplicates.
“After this was brought to our attention, we reviewed the entire batch with the similar coding and discovered 15 documents were incorrectly coded as duplicative,” the department said.
Democrats in Congress are investigating whether the Justice Department withheld the files because they contain four FBI interview reports, known as 302s, involving a woman who accused Trump of sexual assault.
Trump has refuted any misconduct in relation to Epstein’s allegations and has not faced any criminal charges.
Also, the same trove of documents notes that Trump alerted authorities to Epstein in the mid-2000s after he suspected the financier of indecent behavior.
Trump has never been charged with crimes and has long denied involvement in Epstein’s illicit activities.
The newly released interviews were conducted in 2019 after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the allegations.
“These are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history,” Leavitt said.
Before the documents were released, congressional Democrats accused the Justice Department of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The law requires the government to release investigative records related to Epstein while protecting the identities of victims.
When many Epstein files were released in January, officials warned that some materials submitted to investigators may contain false or unverified claims.
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“This production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents, or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the Act,” the Justice Department said.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the department said. “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
